Another fun week full of Christmas goodness!!
1. I've seen a few facebook posts lately "shaming" moms who brag about all the amazing things they do with their kids at Christmas time, and I really hope I don't come across as one of them. For one thing, I do most of my sharing here on my blog, so you don't have to see it if you don't want to. 😂 Secondly, you guys know my kids and I are hot messes, right? You know for every one activity I do with them they watch 3 hours of TV. You know that I'm only a fun mom during Christmas and the rest of the year they're on their own. Lol. Just want to clear that up. I can't stand pretense, and I never want to be anything other than authentic! In fact, this year's Advent Activities have been the most anticlimactic ever. I forget to set it out the night before about 60% of the time. Most of the time I don't even know we're supposed to be doing that day. St. Nick's Day was Dec. 6, but I forgot to put stuff in their shoes the night before. I keep saying I'm going to do it one of these days, but I never remember at night (and Lucy gets up before me in the morning). Maybe tonight? I've also been a little ornery this year because I feel like they're so demanding and ungrateful. One day this week they were whining that the activity I chose was boring and I yelled, "Then you guys can plan all this stuff!! I'm doing my best!!" #honestycard
2. Anyway, we did do a couple fun events this week. Tuesday was our second (third?) annual "Cookies with Cousins." Wonderful Grandma makes the dough, wonderful Niki lets us destroy her kitchen, and the kids have a blast making messes and memories. (Sorry not sorry about all the pictures.)
 |
| Mimi's Christmas Cookie Crew! |
 |
| Who needs a cookie when you've got sprinkles? |
 |
| Thea got to try sugar cookies and frosting for the first time. She was a big fan! |
 |
| Nova! 😂 |
 |
| That tongue comes out every time he's concentrating. Too bad it wasn't long enough to lick the frosting off his nose! 😂 |
 |
| Ruby really likes frosting |
 |
| And sprinkles! Lol |
3. And then, since we hadn't consumed enough sugar the night before, we made gingerbread "houses" at home the next night! I actually could only find gingerbread
train kits (we tried it without kits last year and it was a disaster - haha), so that's what we did.
 |
| Eventually we had to call in Daddy for his construction expertise. |
4. I finally finished my awful history class, and the 4th semester of my 2nd attempt at college. I got a 100% on both my library report and my history paper. Bam! Which means these were my final grades . . .
For all my blustering about my frustrating history professor, I did enjoy the material. It reminded me anew that there is "nothing new under the sun." I read about the Revolutionary War and the aftermath of creating a new government wherein some parties wanted more government control and some wanted less. That hasn't changed. I read about slavery and how some people devoted their lives to abolishing it while others were willing to go to great lengths to defend their right to own other people. While people today don't generally advocate for slavery, I saw such similarities in how people can be so consumed with defending their position and how their convictions tore apart relationships, started wars, and created more division. I even read about the media being used to influence voters and how political pundits used newspapers to vilify their opponents. Again, nothing new under the sun.
Next semester is two upper level library classes and one 5 credit math class. 😓😖 I'm not expecting grades like those ^ again. Haha. At least not in math.
5. On Thursday we had a giant windstorm and the dead tree in our front yard blew down:
It's been slowly dying for years, and Justin keeps saying he's going to chop it down. I guess the wind beat him to it! Thankfully, it blew away from the house!
That afternoon was Lena's class party. This is the first year in a while that I haven't been in charge of class parties, so it was nice just to attend as a parent with no obligations!
Levi's party was on Friday.
6. I was amazed by how many people gave me gifts for being a once-a-week librarian! I got three goodie bags on Monday while I was working, and then 3 more on Thursday/Friday while I was attending parties! People are so generous! One family doesn't even have any kids in my library classes and they still gave me candy and a hot cocoa bomb! I also got two $10 gift cards for Starbucks/Biggby. I'm amazed that people spend that much on non-teachers. And kind of guilty. I never remember to send gifts in for the specials teachers! I was amazed at the foresight of the people who brought me gifts on Monday. Oh to be so organized! Another fun surprise was a monetary bonus, which I really didn't expect since I'm barely part time. A fellow staff member/former teacher got me this awesome shirt:
And sweet Mrs. Miller, the head librarian, gave me these literary treasures:
 |
| Think my kids will adhere to this?? |
It was a great week to be a school librarian!! I was actually supposed to work full time after Christmas break because Mrs. Miller was scheduled to have surgery and a long recovery period, but thanks to stinkin' Covid her surgery got postponed. It's probably for the best that I stay home and do math instead, but I'm still hoping to fill in for her in mid February as long as it doesn't get postponed again!
7. Today was extended family VK Christmas and another reminder that Levi doesn't quite fit in our little family with our awkward/anti-social ways.
He had a blast hanging out with everyone, renewing friendships with distant cousins we only see a few times a year, chatting it up with Justin's adult cousins, even standing on the stage and belting out Christmas carols and "Our God is an Awesome God" for all to hear. Meanwhile, Lena literally did not leave my side for the entire 4 hours we were there. If I stood up to blow my nose, she followed me. If I went to the bathroom, she came with me. When we played a game that involves moving from table to table, she hauled her own chair along every time I moved. And Lucy found her fellow tweens and pretended she didn't even know me. #balance
 |
| Great grandma always gives us money to buy presents for our kids from her. This balloon launcher thingy that I saw on a facebook ad was a hit with both Levi and his second cousin Artie who is exactly a year younger than him. People tell me every time they're together that they look like they could be brothers. It's funny how the gene pool works. |
 |
| Thanking Great Grandma and explaining all the cool stuff his new toy can do. Also, he was so glad that I found a pair of shorts in my van from this summer because he was roasting and covered in sweat after half an hour of running around like a deranged monkey. |
 |
| Levi's teacher gave him this as part of his Christmas present and he wanted me to send her this pic of what he drew. |
 |
| Everyone was passing out their cute photo cards at the Christmas party today and I felt bad for not making the effort. Haha. But I figure anyone I'd send a card to sees our pictures on facebook/my blog anyway, so I'll save myself the $20. |
 |
| Why is this so true?? |
Comments
Post a Comment